Various implementations disclosed herein enable a more efficient allocation of one or more shared network resources amongst a plurality of client devices based on media content complexity and client device resource status in order to better manage perceptual playback quality. In some implementations, a method includes obtaining a plurality of resource constraint values associated with a plurality of client devices sharing a network resource, and jointly determining a respective encoding rate level selection and a corresponding resource allocation for each of the plurality of client devices based on a combination of one or more resource constraint values and the assessment of the respective perceptual quality level values, such that a combination of resulting quality levels satisfies a joint quality criterion.